Maori hit top Gear

Hosea Gear
12 April 2012

England's five-match tour ended with a 35-28 defeat to the New Zealand Maori after an enthralling clash in Napier.

Martin Johnson's men dominated the first half and led 28-17 at the interval with tries from Steffon Armitage, Danny Care and Chris Ashton plus 12 points from the boot of Charlie Hodgson.

But the Maori had already served notice of their intent by hitting back from 13-0 down to take the lead with two brilliant tries from Hosea Gear and captain Liam Messam. And Gear completed his hat-trick as the hosts kept England scoreless in the second half to celebrate their centenary with another famous victory.

England's early dominance was rewarded with a Hodgson penalty and then a try from Armitage as the tourists surged ahead. Hodgson slotted a second penalty as England succeeded where they had failed against the Australian Barbarians, by turning early pressure into points.

Luke McAlister got the Maori onto the scoreboard with a penalty but Hodgson wasted the chance of an immediate response by hitting the post.

Maori full-back Robbie Robinson countered from the rebound and quickly left England's defence in disarray before fly-half Stephen Brett released Gear to score. Another quick break saw Messam cross before McAlister's conversion edged the Maori into a 17-13 lead.

England then scored twice through Care and Ashton in the last minute before half-time to storm back into the lead.

England had dominated the breakdown and the tackle count in the first half but their lead was tentative - and within eight minutes of the restart it had been scrubbed out. Tait and Barritt both fell off McAlister and when the ball was spread wide, Gear charged through a gaping hole in the England defence to score his second try.

The Maori then pounced again after another mistake at the breakdown and the ball was spread left to Gear, who capitalised on a major overlap to complete his hat-trick. McAlister converted both tries to edge the Maori into a 29-28 lead after 48 minutes.

England's pack remained on top but Delon Armitage missed their only penalty shot of the second half with a skewed effort from long range. The Maori closed out the game with two penalties from replacement Willie Ripia.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in